Podcast
Grandma's Been There
Hosted by Siobhan Barry · EN
Host and creator Siobhan Barry takes listeners back to the 1950s and 1960s. Her stories, sometimes funny and sometimes serious, are time traveling trips through the days of penny candies, neighborhood ice cream parlors, fifty-cent movie tickets, air raid drills, summers without air conditioning, street games, homemade toys, football weddings, transistor radios, Beatlemania, and a cultural revolution.
20episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
I Cannot Tell A Lie
6d ago00:18:17Tap to summarizeWhen we were kids, the adults in our lives wanted to be sure we understood that honesty was always the best policy. But how was that concept supposed to sink in when they were constantly lying to us?
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Hair
2w ago00:21:47Tap to summarizeWhen I was a year old, I still hadn’t grown any hair. My mother Scotch taped a bow to the top of my bald head so I would look less like a little boy in girls’ clothing. As a teenager in high school, I loved my waist-length hair and couldn’t understand why my teachers hated it and wanted me to cut it off.
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All About Bill
3w ago00:19:47Tap to summarizeIn March of 1968, Bill Graham opened The Fillmore East. Though it only lasted three years, it would be hailed by both musicians and concert goers as the most unforgettable and greatest rock venue of all time. This month marks the 58th anniversary of the first of countless visits I made to The Fillmore East. I was so incredibly lucky to experience that place, so this week I want to tell you a bit about the man who made it all happen and gave me some of the best memories of my young life.
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How Did They Do It?
4w ago00:21:05Tap to summarizeBrooklyn mothers like mine always found a way to make it all happen for their families. These women that grew up in the Great Depression and came of age during a world war were filled with resilience and ingenuity. The iconic “We can do it!” attitude of Rosie the Riveter endured in our mothers long after the war was over.
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The Coolest Place in the World
May 100:18:51Tap to summarizeAs a thirteen-year-old, I prayed for one Greenwich Village folksinger or one barefoot East Village poet to stray across the Manhattan Bridge and start an artistic community in my neighborhood. Everything worth seeing and hearing was in Manhattan. What was wrong with Brooklyn?
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I Know Something You Don't Know
Apr 2400:20:58Tap to summarizeWhen I was a kid, there was one sure way to get under another kid’s skin. All you had to do was look at them and taunt, “I know something you don’t know.” It never failed. At first, they tried to pretend they didn’t care, but they couldn’t keep it up for long. In two minutes or less, they’d spin around and snap, “So whadda you know??” As somebody born in the 1950s, I know things plenty of younger people don’t. Do you wanna know what they are?
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Well, Hello Mister Soul
Apr 1700:18:38Tap to summarizeOn Christmas morning in 1967, I was kinda disappointed when the record I got wasn’t the one I had asked for. I didn’t think I wanted that album. Fortunately for me, my mother knew better.
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The Fox Hunter
Apr 1000:25:11Tap to summarizeIn 1961, when someone from my school newspaper asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer turned a few heads. I was seven and it was the height of the baby boom. The world was bursting with opportunities.
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A Bench For All Seasons: Spring
Apr 300:13:44Tap to summarizeOne of my favorite ways to recharge is to just sit outside and watch the seasons do what they do best. Each season has a unique personality, but there is one thing they all have in common. They don’t wait around for us to appreciate them. They come and go pretty fast, especially the spring.
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Xanadu's Landlord
Mar 2700:18:11Tap to summarizeWhen you watch the same movie at various stages of your life, you see the story from very different perspectives. I recently watched “Citizen Kane” again for the first time since I was seventeen. It brought back a lot of memories. It also brought up some questions that would never have entered my mind when I was a teenager.
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